Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to plan for the potential effect on international travel of new variants of covid-19.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Government will conduct a full review of international travel restrictions by the end of January, including the approach to responding to future variants, to ensure a stable system for 2022.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to provide passenger locator forms in languages other than English.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The rapidly changing landscape of international travel health measure requirements has placed considerable pressure on maintaining the technical development of the Passenger Locator Form; therefore, translation of the form has not been possible.
Each language added to the system increases the technical development time required, meaning the system could not be accurately maintained given the pace of policy changes as we have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
We have though introduced a guide to support the completion of the PLF which has been translated into 22 languages and is available on GOV.UK. An animated video to support guidance on how to complete the Passenger Locator Form is also in production. This will be placed on GOV.UK and social media platforms.
We will look to introduce translation of the PLF in the future, however this will be dependent on a long-term stable policy for it across the 4 nations of the United Kingdom given the devolution of public health regulations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that people who have arrived in the UK through the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) route can access their Hong Kong Mandatory Provident Fund from the UK using a British National (Overseas) passport.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund Authority is unfairly disrupting people's livelihoods by refusing to accept the BN(O) visa when Hong Kongers apply for early withdrawal of their pensions. This is preventing Hong Kongers from accessing funds they are entitled to. The Government has raised our concerns with the relevant Hong Kong authorities.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Government's overall financial commitment to the Levelling Up Fund remains at £4.8 billion; how much the Government plans to make available for round two; and how many funding rounds there will be in total.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets. We will open round two in Spring 2022 and will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to round one of the Levelling up Fund prospectus and criteria, whether he plans to make changes for round two to the (a) classification of priority areas, (b) criteria for eligible bids by parliamentary constituency, in particular the approach where constituency areas cross local authority boundaries and types of bids likely to be supported and (c) themes of town centre/regeneration, culture and transport; and whether he plans to look for a split across the themes of transport, high streets/regeneration and culture when assessing bids for round two.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets. We will open round two in Spring 2022 and will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to round two of the Levelling Up Fund, when he plans to open that bidding round; what the deadline for that bidding round will be; and what his planned timetable is for announcing funding decisions from that bidding round.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets. We will open round two in Spring 2022 and will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support leaseholders affected by high costs associated with remedial fire-safety works and unsafe cladding who do not qualify for the Building Safety Fund or the loan scheme.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
This Government has committed £5.1 billion of grant funding through the Building Safety Fund for the removal and replacement of unsafe cladding on residential buildings over 18 metres. Building owners and industry should make buildings safe without passing on costs to leaseholders and we are introducing new measures that will legally require building owners to prove they have tried all routes to cover costs.
The Secretary of State is looking very closely at this issue to make sure that everything possible is being done to support leaseholders.
The Government remains committed to protecting leaseholders from unaffordable costs, who bought their flats in good faith and are innocent parties. Further detail on the support offer for leaseholders in residential buildings of 11-18 metres will be released when all options have been fully considered.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the (a) coverage and (b) accessibility of hydrogen filling stations in the UK.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Hydrogen is likely to be fundamental to achieving the full decarbonisation of UK transport. Our £23 million Hydrogen Transport Programme has supported the building of three new refuelling stations, with a further three planned; as well as upgrades to two existing stations, with a further four upgrades planned. As of September 2021, there are fifteen publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling stations across the UK which provide hydrogen suitable for use by vehicles.
Our £20 million Zero Emission Road Freight Trials (ZERFT) are looking at hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in the UK. The trials will inform which technology, or technologies, are best suited for use in the UK and help to clarify our understanding and identify the potential barriers to the installation of refuelling infrastructure, so that these can be addressed before rollout.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Table SFR0303 of the Seafarers in the UK Shipping Industry statistics, published on 24 February 2021, what proportion of (a) UK, (b) EEA and (c) non-EEA seafarers in each seafarer type has received at least one shot of vaccine against covid-19; and if he will outline the procedures in place to monitor covid-19 vaccination rates in countries supplying labour to the UK shipping industry.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
A person’s occupation is not recorded when administering the Covid-19 vaccination. Seafarers in the UK are being vaccinated as part of the general population, with all adults aged 18 and over now eligible. Proof of Covid vaccination is not required to obtain a permit to work in the UK maritime sector.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the ability of individual private landlords to sustain tenant rent arrears that have accrued since covid-19 lockdown measures started in March 2020.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
We have been supporting landlords through helping tenants with extensive financial support to continue paying rent. The UK Government has provided an unprecedented package of financial support which is available to tenants. The Coronavirus Job Reception Scheme and the wider package of economic support measures have effectively prevented a widespread build up of rent arrears, by supporting private renters to continue paying their rent. This is evidenced by the latest published data from the English Housing Survey Household Resilience Study from November – December 2020, which suggests that the vast majority (91%) of private renters are up to date with their rent. Of the 9% (353,000 households) in arrears, two thirds are in arrears of less than 2 months. Given this, we expect that the majority of landlords have not seen significant losses due to tenant rent arrears since Covid-19 measures started in March 2020.
Where landlords find themselves in coronavirus-related hardship, mortgage lenders agreed to offer payment holidays of up to six months, including for buy-to-let mortgages. Mortgage payment holidays agreed before 31 March 2021 can continue until 31 July 2021, whilst other tailored forbearance options may be available through lenders.